The forthcoming, but yet to be announced, Samsung 4.3-inch Galaxy S4 Mini could incorporate a dual-core implementation of ARM’s big-LITTLE architecture, or 2+2 configuration. The larger 5-inch Galaxy S4 is available with an Exynos 5 Octa chip in some markets, which incorporates four high-powered ARM Cortex-A15 cores coupled to four power efficient Cortex-A7 cores. Benchmarks of the Galaxy S4 Mini have appeared confirming an Exynos 5-series dual-core chip, which at the very least, will incorporate two Cortex-A15 cores.
ARM says that its big-LITTLE architecture can be scaled from single-core implementations up to 16 core variants, making it feasible that the Exynos 5210 running in the Galaxy S4 Mini could adopt such a design. As with the Exynos 5 Octa, the advantage of the big.LITTLE architecture is that it can help to boost the battery performance of mobile devices. The high-performance Cortex-A15 cores activate when high performance processing is demanded, while the low-power, but lower performance Cortex-A7 cores conserve power during less demanding tasks.
The Exynos 5210 in the Galaxy S4 Mini is clocked at 1.6GHz and has been shown to score around 14000 points on the AnTuTU benchmark. While not in the same league as the Galaxy S4 with Snapdragon 600, which returns a score of 24700 points, it is comparable in performance to the A6 processor in the iPhone 5. However, although the Galaxy S4 Mini performance will be solid, its 4.3-inch Super AMOLED display incorporates a relatively low-resolution qHD display. An official reveal is expected in the next few weeks.
